Doctor Who- (Demons Run) A Good Man Goes to War

Demons Run When A Good Man Goes to War

Series 6
Story 07
3 June 2011
Demons run when a good man goes to war
Night will fall and drown the sun
When a good man goes to war

Friendship dies and true love lies
Night will fall and the dark will rise
When a good man goes to war

Demons run, but count the cost
The battle’s won, but the child is lost

NOTE: If you live in the US and are reading this, you have not yet seen the mid-series cliffhanger with two names – Demons Run and A Good Man Goes to War. As such, please be aware that this review holds nothing but lots of spoilers for you.

Please bookmark this review and read it next Saturday night, leaving comments if you would.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Series 6 has been a roller coaster ride unlike anything we have seen before in Doctor Who. It opened with the Doctor’s death, Amy’s pregnancy, President Nixon’s paranoia and new monsters called the Silence. Apart from Curse of the Black Spot and the Doctor’s Wife, all seven parts of this series have essentially functioned as one large story separated by running, yelling and the incessant pounding of Murray Gold’s string section. Mysteries have dangled from last year’s ‘Crack in Time’ story into this year where even more events have been unexplained such as Amy’s pregnancy, the girl in the astronaut costume who can regenerate and the annoying River Song whose camp insistence that she is important have only made her all the more tiring. With the series cut in two from the usual 13 parts to two sets of episodes, Moffat had to chose a point to not only break up the action but also provide at least some closure on these mysteries and dangling plot threads.

Demon’s Run feels very much like a Davies-era ‘kitchen sink’ finale which I take as weakness on the part of Moffat or the BBC. Either or both may think that viewers need a major blockbuster event in place of a story in order to qualify as a finale or cliffhanger. Of course this is not true as fans have been complaining of too many monsters and explosions being crammed on screen in place of story for at least three years. Nevertheless, from the opening moments of this adventure in which Rory (inexplicably dressed as a Roman Centurion) boards a Cybermen craft just as the Doctor (depicted as a fleeting shadow brandishing his magical sonic screwdriver) explodes their fleet. Perhaps that’s how the BBC Wales production team sees the Doctor, as a romantic pixie-like creature holding a magic wand. Yep, that actually fits.

Meanwhile, the Clerical order last seen in The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone have captured Amy Pond and her newborn and are massing a large army to stop the Doctor, the most feared man in all creation. Alongside these sequences on board the asteroid base are jumps back and forth in time and space as numerous characters are recruited by the Doctor in order to pay back a debt. A comical Sontaran nurse (excellently played by Dan Starkey last seen in the Sontaran Stratagem), a Jack the Ripper hunting samurai Silurian living in Victorian London along with her companion Jenny, the blue-skinned Star Wars-reject from last year’s finale, Dorium Maldovar and of course River Song whose convoluted back story is so complex at this point that it’s unclear when in time we are visiting her. After consulting her diary of secret history, she declines Rory’s request to assist in the liberation of Amy Pond and her baby, much to the chagrin of both Rory and the Doctor.

The build-up lasts far too long and includes far too much exposition of established as well as new concepts, such as the Headless Monks with flaming laser swords. There were so many new characters bearing weapons and overly complicated back stories that I felt I was watching the Star Wars prequels. It certainly bore more a resemblance to Revenge of the Sith than Doctor Who. The only saving grace comes from some absolutely sterling performances from the aforementioned Starkey, Neve McIntosh as the Silurian Madame Vastra and of course Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill. All of the main cast made the story almost bearable, but the guest cast of warrior clerics was laughable as was the ‘eye patch lady’ played by Frances Barber who apparently thought she was starring in as remake of Peter Pan as Captain Hook.

More great images at Series60s

Demon’s Run is a mess of connect-the-dots story telling, bombastic exposition, fireworks and lots of actors posing for their action figures. It feels like a performance from Disney World rather than a television drama. Throughout the painful ordeal of the story, I wondered where this could all be leading as the music swelled and poetic verse was recited over slow motion combat. The Doctor, a goofy British guy in a jacket, was built up to be the most dangerous man to have ever lived. A massive army complete with deep-space support was assembled to hold him off while an evil woman with an eye patch attempted to steal a defenseless baby from a loving couple.

It’s absurd.

In previous stories of the classic Doctor Who program, the Doctor has allied himself with an existing resistance or stealthily acted against some invading alien forces to undo their plans. He didn’t proudly stand in their way proclaiming his intentions while they patiently waiting for his dialog to end. I find this approach of building the Doctor into a mythical champion to be laughable and reduces an otherwise sophisticated concept into a cartoon.

The Doctor of the classic Doctor Who program was defined as a hero by his actions rather than by his reputation. His liberation of the inhabitants of Paradise Towers was, in spite of the opposition, not because the monsters backed away in fear. When he encountered the Zygons living in the bottom of Loch Ness, he was not immediately known to them and feared as ‘the oncoming storm.’

The Doctor of the BBC Wales program is brash, proud and dangerous, his mere name instilling fear into the hearts of his enemies. His actions aren’t even necessary as the whisper of his name causes characters to either rally to his side or run in fear.

All that said… Moffat once again uses this approach to his benefit. Demon’s Run is largely a spectacle of aliens and soldiers duking it out in space, something that Moffat no doubt gleefully presented to his son as ideal entertainment (I can see a young boy loving all of this and good on him for making it). Even as an action adventure full of poorly thought-out ideas and padding there are things to like about Demon’s Run such as the nurse Sontaran and the Victorian man-hunter Silurian. Both are silly concepts but executed so well that I found myself liking them.

However, the story gets more complex when the conclusion turns the situation on its head (much like last year’s Pandorica Opens that saw the Doctor apparently defeating his enemies by declaring his presence). After taking control of the asteroid from the gun toting Clerics (Moffat has one weird view of religion… and of the military- why do none of the clerics just follow orders as most soldiers do?), it is revealed that the entire situation was a trap to entice the Doctor into a false sense of security and then pull the rug out from under him.

Well done, Mister Moffat. I almost forgive you for the preceding 30 odd minutes of Star Wars.

Centurion Rory confronts the Cybermen

The unnamed clerical order of soldiers acting on the orders of the evil eye patch lady Madame Kovarian are at war with the Doctor and have tricked him into this situation in order to nab the baby who has become a Time Lord by her being conceived inside the TARDIS. For all of the exposition in this episode, I could have used some explanations as to why these soldiers hated the Doctor and who Madame Kovarian was, but it’s all left very vague.

Throughout the episode, Amy states that she relies on the Doctor to come to her aid, just as Kovarian’s forces prepare to hold him at bay. After defeating the clerics, the Doctor allows himself a moment of rage that greatly disturbs his Silurian ally (and even himself). He doesn’t just want to win, he wants to shame his enemies, showing shades of the Tenth Doctor’s hubris. In the end, Amy’s faith in the Doctor proves ill placed as he realizes too late they have not won at all an. the life-like material known as the ‘flesh’ was used to pull the wool over his eyes. Once more the Doctor’s belief in himself has been used against him. He is not the most dangerous man alive by a long chalk, he really is just a mad man with a box.

This is a devastating revelation that I think will have far-reaching consequences for the Doctor. Keep in mind that in the Impossible Astronaut, 200 years have passed for the Doctor and he feels that he must pay for his actions. I think that the beginnings of this downward cycle are to be found in the moment when the Doctor is tricked by Madame Kovarian.

While the script is a mess, Matt Smith once again turns in a startlingly impressive performance as the Doctor, reaching levels of anger, warmth and quirkiness that has become synonymous with the Eleventh Doctor. As I was watching the episode I was aware of how poorly constructed this house of cards was, but Smith retained his stature and poise (the sign of any great Doctor in my opinion is how he handles a bad script).

Some character from last series and some other characters from this one

Demon’s Run attempts to be far too many things at once and in the end fails at many of them. With so many characters prancing about, the plot jumps throughout different points in time and space to visit characters that are either new with made-up back stories or references to actual adventures. It’s an over-ambitious mess. As a story about the undoing of the Doctor, I found it impressive… but more than a little annoying.

I could have done without all of the pathos and rousing music over Amy’s plight and Rory’s undying love for her (at least it wasn’t the Doctor’s love for Rose). Additionally, the revelation regarding River and the baby is nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is. In fact, many fans guessed this ages ago online. I couldn’t see the point in it then and see less point in it now. The character of River Song is so very tired at this point.

To be honest, I’m more interested in Madame Vastra and Jenny, yet we are unlikely to see them again.

Silurian Madame Vastra and… Jenny

From the trailer it was apparent that Demon’s Run was not going to be an episode heavy in plot or character, but even so I was annoyed at the over-reliance on special effects and aliens. Doctor Who is better than this and so is Steven Moffat.

Once Doctor Who was the most imaginative and far-reaching science fiction drama, capable of depicting gripping suspense, high adventure or brilliant comedy. Now it seems that Doctor Who has become little more than a tool to wrap up several plot threads from series to series. The program is an extension of the plot rather than the plot an extension of the program. It’s no longer about where/when the Doctor is headed next, it’s about how it will tie into the over-arching plot involving the time baby or River Song’s identity, or any number of other concept that Moffat finds necessary.

In the end I had a nasty taste in my mouth, and just like the conclusion of many a fairground ride, the sensation that I was going to be sick.

Next time: ‘Let’s Kill Hitler!’

Doctor Who – The Curse of the Black Spot

The Curse of the Black Spot

Series 06
Story 03
07 May 2011

On the high seas of the 17th Century, a crew of pirates are stuck on a cursed vessel. A beastly creature swarms the waters waiting for the right time to appear and snatch another soul into her grasp. When a strange trio of travelers appears out of thin air, Captain Avery is not sure what to make of the event, but he knows that the Doctor cannot save his ship from its curse or stop the deaths of his crew. When Rory is marked for death and the TARDIS itself proves unreliable, the Doctor realizes that this is not just a game of playing pirates, it’s something much more dangerous.

After a head trip two-parter involving the death of every cast member on the program, an alien invasion and President Nixon, I was expecting a light-hearted adventure featuring pirates and rum and maybe a bit of spookiness. Stephen Thompson (familiar to some from his work on Moffat’s other award winning program Sherlock) does deliver a rollicking adventure but it has plenty of twists and turns that keep not just the audience guessing but the Doctor as well.

Captain Avery and his band of rogues

The Doctor, Amy and Rory materialize aboard a cursed pirate ship just as a bizarre creature appearing to be a siren is gobbling them up one by one. Each victim is marked with a black spot cannot help but to answer her call. The Doctor’s flippant behavior fails to win over the Captain who orders the Time Lord to walk the plank while Amy and Rory look on, helpless. Stowed away for later, Amy finds a cache of weapons and is inspired to briefly play the role of the pirate and save the Doctor’s life.

In the ensuing tussle (that the Doctor can only watch through his fingers), Amy is surprised that the pirates seem mortally afraid of her despite the fact that she has no idea what she is doing. When she mildly wounds a crew mate the others enter paroxysms of grief. Just one drop of blood is all that is needed to mark a man as a victim of the siren. Lesson learned, the stakes are understandably raised much higher than usual. Any wound at all is fatal. Unfortunately, Rory becomes nicked as well and receives a back spot on his hand spontaneously. The Doctor struggles to figure out the mystery of the siren and how the ‘curse’ works, but each moment proves him wrong and he is back to square one.

via tardisnewsroom: http://tinyurl.com/3kxrkrp

It’s rather thrilling to see the Doctor out of his depth (so to speak) and desperately trying to figure out what the threat is and how it functions. Part of the appeal for the Eleventh persona of the Doctor is that, though he is a genius, his mind is operating at a higher speed than the rest of him can catch up to. Most of the time he is developing a scheme of some sort with no idea how it functions. In the case of The Curse of the Black Spot, he begins the adventure in a state of whimsy only to see it all spin out of control before his eyes.

The Doctor walks the plank

The setting of a 17th century pirate ship is rather clever and offers plenty of atmosphere for the traditional ‘base under siege’ story that has become so familiar to veteran Whovians. The visual effects department did a superb job in representing the vessel and its interior, giving a rich sense of realism, if through a fantastic lens (this is, after all, the Moffat era of Doctor Who which fancies itself a fairy tale). The siren is, to be honest, not that interesting which is an oversight on the program’s part but luckily the script is full of engrossing material, well defined characters and plenty of fine actors to play the supporting cast. Still… I would have preferred a new monster to an ethereal Lily Cole… but I’m in the minority on that one, aren’t I?

Hugh Bonneville of course has to do much of the heavy lifting in this adventure as the dread Captain Avery. After establishing himself as a desperate and dangerous man upon discovering the Doctor, his rough finish is softened when he finds that his abandoned son had stowed away on board. It’s a touching story and blends effortlessly into the main body of the plot involving a cursed vessel preyed upon by an otherworldly threat that even the Doctor cannot understand. Sure, it could be seen in a cynical light as a shorthand manner in which to gain the audience’s acceptance of the Captain and involve them in caring for the boy, but it worked for me due to the strong performances.

Amy Pond to the rescue

The real sparkle of The Curse of the Black Spot comes when the entire crew, Captain Avery’s son, Toby and Rory are subsumed by the Siren and the Doctor throws caution to the wind and submits to the creature’s attacks. It’s a wonderful moment straight out the classic series when an idea is stood on its head and what appears to be one thing is in fact something wholly other.

The resolution aboard the alien freighter is a bit too quickly told for my liking, especially as so much has been theorized about the Siren then cast aside as nonsense. Being told that the pirate ship shared the same space as an alien vessel where the entire crew died from human germs and the sick bay is full of the missing crew is a LOT to swallow very quickly… then it gets complicated. To find that the siren is a malfunctioning sick bay program is a bit odd but it fits the rest of the story and also my notion of a classic Doctor Who story where a threat can be mainly due to a misunderstanding or just technology gone wrong.

The Siren

The conclusion is poetically whimsical and once more relies on love solving all problems, but I prefer the defiance of Amy Pond to a magical wand putting everything right any day. It’s at least better than getting a Dalek-created robot to not explode by making him remember someone he fancied. The relationship between Amy and Rory was given ample space to grow once more, showing that it’s not just up to the Doctor to set things right (I hope we get more of that).

There are a few points of series-long continuity squeezed in such as the eye-patched woman appearing to Amy while she tries to sleep on the pirate ship and the Doctor still unable to confirm Amy’s pregnancy that bothered me some, mainly because I felt that these plot points could have been conveyed better without interfering in the main plot. But it’s a slight problem in an otherwise fine episode.

Next time: The Doctor’s Wife

Doctor Who – The Impossible Astronaut

The Doctor (No. 11, Matt Smith)

The Impossible Astronaut

Series 06
Story 01
23 April 2011
The Doctor has been travelling alone for over 200 years, desperately trying to outrun his destiny. Reunited in the deserts of Utah, the Doctor’s companions witness his death at the hands of an astronaut. All of the clues to, his death lie in a series of note cards delivered to four people that he trusts above all others, including himself… aged 200 years younger.

Head writer Steven Moffat is obsessed with experimental narrative styles, specifically involving time travel. His creation of River Song, a character from the Doctor’s future who dies the first time the Doctor meets her, proves this, the series five two part finale from last year cements it in place, the series six opener is very risky indeed. The problem with telling stories backwards is that it holds all of the most important details until the end, rather like a murder mystery. But like many mysteries, the entire story can be undone by the ‘big reveal’ if it proves to be contrived, ham-fisted or just stupid.

The identity of River Song has been held over the audience of Doctor Who for several years now. We know that once the Doctor discovers who she is (and presumably who she murdered), it will ‘change everything.’ But suppose that big reveal is a clunker? What a waste of several years’ worth of programming. I will say that for all of the risks that Moffat has taken so far, he has proven himself worth the trust that he has demanded from viewers. The revelation of Amy Pond and the ‘Crack in Time’ along with the Pandorica were all quite satisfying (in my opinion, anyway) and utilized clues that were presented to viewers rather than inventing new ones like some other writers I could mention.

This over-extended preamble is my way of saying that Moffatt had better deliver the goods with next week’s episode because he has essentially given us half a story in this one.

The whole gang is back together again

(warning, nothing but spoilers here. If you haven’t seen this episode, read no further.. but go watch it)

Inexplicably, the story opens with a flurry of scenes depicting the Doctor in ridiculous situations throughout history. We are then transported to Amy and Rory living the domestic life of a young married couple, discussing the possibility that the Doctor has been doing all of this to attract their attention. It is then established that some time has passed since the closing moments of the Christmas Carol of 2010 and that the Doctor and his companions had parted company for some reason. Odd beginning for a heavily marketed opening episode.

Just before The Impossible Astronaut aired on BBC America, a ‘catch up’ program was screened offering anyone who had never seen Doctor Who a summary of last year. This kind of thing always strikes me as dubious, but given that the advertising has been so aggressive for this evening’s story, the possibility that much of the audience may be new to Doctor Who was very likely. Given all that, I have no idea what a newcomer would have made of this one.

After establishing that the Doctor has been traveling through time like some prankster without Amy and Rory, a mysterious letter arrives compelling them to travel to Utah for a specific date. We are then transported to River Song in prison where she receives a similar letter, leading to another break out from the most escapable institution this side of Arkham Asylum. All of the players finally unite to meet the Doctor who is lounging on a vintage car in the middle of the desert, donning a stetson, cool as you like.

It’s a neat visual but… convoluted? We’re just getting started.

The main cast members definitely behave like old friends getting back together after a long break. Actress Alex Kingston is back to her snarky old self, dressed head to toe in denim with a six-shooter on her hip. The newly weds Amy and Rory are far more toned down than we saw them last year, appearing far more ‘ordinary’ and pedestrian than the same characters who had witnessed the second big bang and tussled with vampires in Venice. I imagine that this is intentional so as to use the pair as an easy point of reference for the viewer rather than dumping newcomers in the deep end to a program starring four strangers.

In fact, the US premier began with as preamble spoken by Karen Gillan offering a sort of recap of Doctor Who from Amy Pond’s point of view. As a seasoned viewer this was incredibly weird, but as BBC America are tailoring the program to a target demographic… I can see the logic.

After a calm picnic reuniting old friends, the Doctor establishes that 200 years have passed since he has last seen his friends. He has been running from something but has finally decided to stop and face it. Amy, Rory and River are there to bear witness only. For a brief moment, Amy sees a suited alien being in the distance, but just as quickly forgets that she ever saw it. A stranger pulls up in a pickup truck just as an astronaut arrives at the edge of the lake near the picnic site. The Doctor and the astronaut have a heated argument and then the astronaut fires an energy ray from its fingers. As the Doctor begins to regenerate, it fires again, killing the Doctor outright. The man in the truck identifies himself as Canton Delaware III. Using a container of gasoline he was apparently ordered to bring with him, they burn the Doctor’s body in a viking funeral.

Shaken by the experience of seeing the Doctor murdered, the trio of friends retreat to a diner where they discover that they are not the only ones who have been summoned. The Doctor enters the diner, 200 years earlier than the version they had just met in the desert. One of the more amusing moments from Smith, it counters a lot of the heavy drama earlier in the episode.

Clearly the invitations were sent to the Doctor’s friends for a reason, but given the importance of the time line, they cannot change what they have seen (unless you count the many times the BBC Wales version has dodged that problem). The Doctor must die. As she herself is a time anomaly, River Song stresses to Amy that they cannot save the Doctor’s life in his past. Despite all of this, it is clear that Amy intends to change the course of events any way she can.

With very few clues to go on, the time travelers use the only one that makes sense, the stranger in the pickup truck. Using his identity as a marker and the Doctor’s odd mentioning of Space 1969, they arrive in the Oval Office of the White House just as President Richard Nixon is briefing a much younger version of Canton Delaware on a series of phone calls that have been haunting him. The calls are from a child terrified of an attack from an astronaut. After some awkward introductions, the Doctor establishes himself as the ideal man to solve the mystery.

The new character of Canton Delaware III is apparently very popular with fans. Played by actor Mark Sheppard (familiar to viewers of Firefly and Battlestar Galactica), he acts as an anchor to the 1969 storyline. A gravelly-voiced man with an ‘attitude problem,’ he makes for the perfect ally capable of convincing President Nixon of trusting the Doctor.

While the Doctor struggles to unravel the location of the President’s phone caller, Amy visits the toilet where she sees the bizarre suited alien once more. The creature kills a random White House staff member, yet retains knowledge of the woman, indicating to Amy that she must tell the Doctor that he is going to die. It’s a chilling moment and a really impressive entrance for the new monster called the Silence. I wasn’t sold on them at first glance, but they grew on me. Weird, unsettling and dressed in a simple black suit, the Silence has no mouth until an orifice opens up and sucks its target out of existence.

Nice one.

The Silence attack!

The Doctor tracks the phone call to Florida and departs with is trio of companions plus the gravelly Canton Delaware. Arriving in a spooky warehouse filled with stolen NASA equipment and an autopsy table built with alien technology, the crew finally get a moment to gather themselves and the audience gains a (brief) moment as well. River traces a line of cable to a manhole cover leading to a set of caves that her handy Star Trek scanner-thing identify as ancient. She stumbles upon a nest of Silence monsters, but forgets all about them as soon as she turns away. With Rory in tow, she descends for another look and finds a locked door.

On the other side is an experimental time machine (last seen in the series 5 story, The Lodger). As this was a major unfinished plot thread from last year, I am happy that they are picking it up here.

The Doctor, Canton and Amy are meanwhile looking for clues in the warehouse when a girl’s voice calls for help. Canton is off in a flash, but Amy suddenly remembers that she has to tell the Doctor something terribly important. This keeps the Doctor from keeping up with Canton, so when they finally do reach him, they find the former FBI man unconscious. Almost manic with anxiety, Amy tearfully tells the Doctor that she is pregnant just as an astronaut enters the room. It looks identical to the one Amy and the others saw kill the Doctor in 2011. Thinking quickly (and not clearly), Amy swipes Canton’s sidearm and fires at the astronaut as it raises it’s visor, revealing a screaming and frightened little girls trapped inside.

It’s an astounding cliffhanger. Traditionally, episodes end with either the Doctor or his companion in danger. By setting up the plot as an elaborate house of cards, Moffat has created a very impressive moment that will leave viewers hanging by their fingernails until next week. It’s exactly the kind of thing that will bet people chatting at the office or wherever and pull in a larger viewing figure for part two.

All of my praise aside, the Impossible Astronaut is a mixed bag and frankly I’m not sure what to make if it. On the one hand it is very tense and well-paced with an haunting new monster (always welcome) and features Matt Smith once again proving that he was born to play the role of the 900 year-old Doctor. On the other hand, it is a convoluted mess with far too many changes in setting and far too many characters, making the experience a bit of a carnival ride. All that said, the pieces do fall into place when the ride stops running and the more that I think of it, the more excited I am for the next episode when more clues are revealed… I hope.

I’d like to also refer readers to the Bigger On The Inside blog which has an excellent review of the Impossible Astronaut in addition to some of the best analysis of the program that I have seen online. Great work!

Julian Bleach, the voice of the phrase 'silence will fall'?

There are a lot of mysteries in this 6th series of Doctor Who including the identity of River Song, the meaning of the phrase ‘silence will fall’ (definitely spoken by actor Julian Bleach who last appeared in Doctor Who as Davros) and the importance of Amy Pond to the Doctor. It’s a hell of a lot to juggle while also delivering a coherent enjoyable 45 minute episode. I worry that there are far too many plates spinning for the new series of Doctor Who, but that seems to be the method of the BBC Wales version of the program; big wild ideas that lay interconnected through plot strands left in each episode leading to a big major finale at the end.

In my opinion this is a flawed approach that takes what was once a clever and evocative program and transforms it into a spectacle. But if that’s the way it has to be, I prefer Moffat’s approach to Davies’ any day.

As always the only way to see if it’s worth the ride is to buy a ticket and take your chances.

Update: In a recent interview with Express.co.uk, Karen Gillan discussed the ‘dummy ending’ of series 6 and the implications of how episode 7 ‘A Good Man Goes to War’ will impact the main cast…

“Cliffhangers normally have the characters’ lives being threatened. With this one three lives will be changed for ever,” she says.

“Even I got given a dummy ending to episode seven and it was only at the read-through that Steven Moffat took me, Matt and Arthur into the corridor to read the proper version on his laptop. We then all paced around going: ‘Oh my God!’

“There’s a really interesting plot arc in this series that involves all of the major characters and it’s evident from the first episode that everyone on the Tardis is withholding secrets from one another. It will make for a fascinating dynamic between the characters and it’s really important to the whole series.”

Next Time: Day of the Moon

‘Doctor Who: Shadows Of The Vashta Nerada’ (preview)

Thanks to the tardisnewsroom for the heads up.

Earlier this month, DoctorWhoTV reported that producer and head writer Steven Moffat is very fired up about the fourth online Doctor Who adventure:

“We’ve gone all-out for the season finale,” says Steven Moffat, executive producer Doctor Who. “Shadows of the Vashta Nerada takes place entirely underwater – something which would be impossible for the TV series, as water is so expensive. It’s thrilling, terrifying, educational and fun. Just steer clear of those shadows…”

A fan favorite monster from David Tennant’s third series on the program, the Vashta Nerada premiered in the two-parter ‘Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead. A carnivorous race of microscopic beings dwelling in the shadows, they were an instant hit, leaving fans hungry for more. Honestly, Moffat has a real gift for creating new series monsters. The story is that the first half of the 6th series will not feature any returning monsters (meaning no obligatory Dalek adventure), which may disappoint some fans, but sounds perfect to me. Doctor Who needs more new monsters of the Vashta Nerada’s ilk.

In the meantime, one enemy will be making a comeback in this Doctor Who Adventures Game.
Via http://www.digitalspy.com:

After the claustrophobic and rather brief third episode ‘TARDIS’ comes the most ambitious Doctor Who: The Adventure Games instalment yet. Following directly from the last episode’s ending, the Doctor and Amy find themselves in a sprawling underwater colony several centuries into the future. And it hits the ground running, with a hulking, two-finned shark trying to smash its way through the seabed tunnel to drown the duo, and so it’s up to the player to flee through a series of doorways to safety.

Each door has you play one of two new simple mini-games, completed by repeating a series of numbers into a keypad. With the TARDIS cut off thanks to a collapsed tunnel, the duo work their way through the passages, surrounded by deep blue sea at all sides and the beast on their backs until they reach the base’s centre of operations. Arriving to some hostility from an AI computer and the base’s crew, a series of dialogue choices convince them that the pair are not a threat, and you learn that the shark isn’t the only thing that’s causing bother around these parts.

As well as a mysterious sickness sweeping through the base, mid-conversation the lights cut out to give our shadow-dwelling friends the Vashta Nerada their grand entrance, devouring a crew member’s flesh in the blink of an eye. With the emergency lights barely operating and the staff gravely ill, it’s up to the duo to tread back through the tunnels, avoiding shadows along the way. A single step into the dark spells game over, as does failing another new mini-game of lining up circling lights with a mouse press. Like the chapter’s opening moments, it’s a mad rush of using the Sonic Screwdriver on panels and legging it down narrow stretches to safety. Other areas feature lights slowly moving down the corridor, requiring a steady pace and timing instead.

The end destination is a generator room populated by Vashta Nerada-controlled divers, bringing the return of that now familiar stealth gameplay we’ve seen in previous chapters. Although you need to sneak around and avoid their cones of vision to survive, this area does present one of the trickiest puzzles yet as you attempt to lure them out of the dark shadows and into the light. With the menace disposed of, several wire-matching mini-games make a reappearance as the Doctor repairs the power to the base, and with a little more investigation starts to piece together these seemingly random threats.

Returning to the crew, the base opens up to reveal laboratories and a large canteen cheerfully decked out with Christmas decorations. The areas are largely devoid of purpose, although they’re enjoyable to look around and feature collectable cards in the nooks and crannies. As the lights are fully operational the tunnels are also free to explore, paving the way for the next task of finding a cure for the sickness, with an adventure game feel in looking for ingredients lurking in crates and in supply rooms.

With a remedy in hand and access to the base’s records, the Doctor finally uncovers what’s behind all the problems plaguing the base – the shark, Vashta Nerada and the sickness included – and so the final chapter sees him and Amy travel to the source to put an end to it. With this fourth and final chapter you get a sense that Sumo Digital is becoming more effective at pacing and structuring, reserving the stealth sections for key moments and peppering adventure game elements throughout to keep things ticking along. With its larger setting and multiple threats, ‘Shadows Of The Vashta Nerada’ is a fitting end to such an enjoyable series.

Three Doctor Who 5.13 ‘The Big Bang’ videos

Since its return in 2005, the series finales of Doctor Who have been a big deal. The first finale featured not just a massive army of flying Daleks but the regeneration of the Doctor into a new incarnation a new actor never seen on the series before. Relatively unknown-actor David Tennant quickly became a household name and associated most firmly with the role of the Doctor, leading many new fans to refuse to think of anyone else playing the part.

What I personally find interesting is how the classic Doctor Who finales were hardly anything to crow about. After crafting the most high profile explosive adventure ever seen on Doctor Who, producer and head writer Russell T Davies saw the success of the first finale as a challenge that needed to be met year after year. An army of Daleks was supplanted by a warring army of Cybermen or a swarm of killer silver spheres led by the Master or even the destruction of all matter by the screaming mad scientist Davros.

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Steven Moffatt

New series producer and head writer, the Nebula award-winning author Steven Moffatt has entertained fans in the past 4 years, penning the most popular stories of the new program. Taking over the reigns of Doctor Who, he envisioned the series as a modern fairy tale. Sculpting his stories into fanciful larger-than-life adventures, Moffatt’s first year has been a success with viewers, no doubt proving to nervous BBC execs that Doctor Who could survive the loss of the popular duo of RTD and star David Tennant.

After proving that the series could still pull in viewers with an entirely new cast and a new direction, Moffatt now has one last rite of passage to complete the hat trick… create a great finale. Even the most die-hard of fans have grown weary of the ‘kitchen sink’ finales that saw every monster thrown on screen as the fate of the universe hangs in the balance. Moffat turned the premise on its head with episode 12 ‘The Pandorica Opens,’ but can he pull of the final chapter of his first year as head of the longest running science fiction TV program?

Read on and make your own decisions…

<<<SPOILERS>>>

Doctor Who – The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood

Doctor Who – The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood
Series 05
Stories 08, 09
22, 29 May 2010

In the year 2020, humanity is about to make contact with an ancient race that once ruled the planet Earth. They have only one chance to live in harmony together or face extinction. Only the Doctor can act as peacemaker between the two races. The trouble is that this makes the third attempt by the Doctor to convince the human race to live in peace with the Silurians… and the other two did not go well either.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Since Doctor Who returned in 2005, it has revived a monster or villain from the classic series each year, starting with the Daleks. Series Two saw the Cybermen back (albeit as a cybernetic race from an alternate reality), Series Three was all about the Master (albeit a prancing/mincing loon over-acted by John Simm), Series Four the incredibly unimpressive Sontarans resurfaced and finally the Time Lords themselves made a come-back as Doctor No. 10 departed. To date, the only monsters that made any real impression on me are the Daleks and even they have been hit and miss as they lose more credibility each time they come back to fight the Doctor and fail miserably.

A two-parter introducing new versions of a classic Doctor Who monster, The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood has been teased as far back as the Series 5 promotional film showing a massive reptilian face exploding at the viewer. This should be big for the program and in the end, it’s only a so-so adventure. Featuring some of the most wonderful designs I have seen in the new program, the failure lay in the script and guest cast.

Written by Chris Chibnall of Torchwood fame (the man who gave us the episode Cyberwoman), the story opens with the most touchy-feely drill rig ever. As a man (Mo) attempts to read to his son and the rig crew celebrates digging further into the planet’s crust than ever before by hugging and kissing. Murray Gold’s music insists that this is all very touching so it must be so.

The Doctor and his companions arrive expecting to find themselves in tropical Rio (a joke that refuses to die throughout the story) but are beyond disappointed to instead have landed in Wales some ten years in the future. Rory and Amy are shocked to see future versions of themselves waving back on a far off hill, a very interesting concept of time travel conundrums. Unfortunately, after a promising moment like this, the intelligence of the script takes a snooze for the remainder of the first part. It appears that Rory and Amy have finally made some progress and are now formally engaged again, though Rory is nervous enough about Amy losing her engagement ring to stick it back in the TARDIS for safe keeping.

After the cardboard character of Mo is swallowed up by a hole in the ground, the Doctor and Amy attempt to worm their way into the facility claiming to be official representatives of a make believe government agency (thank you, psychic paper). Amy is also swallowed up and all of the Doctor’s suspicions that there is something amiss are shown as well-founded. While the humans have been digging down, the Silurians have been digging upwards to ‘invade.’

Rory is rather hilariously mistaken for a policeman by Mo’s wife and child who are worried about their lost cardboard family member. Sure, it’s funny to give Rory something to do but it is also a plot cul de sac that wouldn’t be missed had it been written out. In face, all of the supporting characters are empty vessels that viewers are expected to somehow attach feelings to as they are jostled about through the story.

When they finally appear on screen, the Silurians look very impressive but they are acted and written so poorly that they make no real impact on the viewer. There is no alteration of speaking pattern or body language or any deviation at all from typical human behavior. It’s a big disappointment and along with the poor quality of the writing and guest cast, this is easily the low point of the new series so far.

Smith gets some very impressive moments including one where he gently yet firmly insists that the humans that he admires so much had better not resort to violence. It’s a great moment and is conveyed so wonderfully as Smith comes off so charming and friendly yet there is a definite threat to his words. After a botched attempt by the Silurians to overcome the remainder of the drill rig crew and Mo’s wife and child who have stopped by to co-star, the Doctor manages to capture a Silurian warrior named Alaya. The two share some woeful dialog and again we see that the Doctor wears the face of friendliness and charm but is much more than he seems. With a harmless smile, he gently convinces Alaya to answer all of his questions and conveys a level of authority beyond his nutty professor exterior. I can totally see old fans of the program spotting a level of Patrick Troughton in his performance.

Very soon it becomes clear that this story is going to be an analysis of an alien race rather than a typical run around. Rather than bug-eyed monsters or hinting at more than you actually see (something the classic program excelled at), the two-parter painfully examines the monsters who are sadly very shallow and uninteresting. It all comes across as very ‘Star Trek’ which Doctor Who should never ever be.

The one shining part of the two parter is the main cast as Matt Smith continues to dazzle as the Doctor, Karen Gillan is perfectly perky as the blustery Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory is the ideal bumbling boyfriend who cannot get anything right. The three actors play off well against each other which is a lucky thing as there isn’t much else that this two parter has going for it.

The first part is decidedly light-weight. Honestly, it feels like 5 minutes stretched out over 43. Most of the dialog is of the ‘something happens while one character asks what is happening and the Doctor explains’ variety. That said, the revelation at the end is quite stellar and the special effect of the underground Silurian city (something never before seen in the program) is brilliantly realized. While I am slagging off on the acting and script, I have to give full marks to the designers for doing a bang-up job on the visuals this time around.

A Silurian is unmasked in 'The Hungry Earth'

The second part begins with a totally bizarre narrative introduction that gives away the ending of the story by stating that the adventure we are watching is in the past. The narrator even gives a teaser that the Doctor ‘suffered great personal loss.’ Apparently the survival of the human race isn’t so much of a dramatic pull as the fate of Amy and Rory. For all of my praising of the series 5, this feels a whole lot like previous episodes under the Russel T Davies regime.

The Doctor and Nasreen attempt to make contact with the Silurians but are nearly destroyed by the Silurian scientists who analyze them. I have read several reviewers stating that The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood is a sub-standard rehash of Malcolm Hulke’s Silurians story that introduced the characters and frankly I don’t see the connection. Sure, both stories involve a threat coming from within the Earth rather than from space, and both stories involve the Doctor attempted to form a peace pact between the two races, but the comparisons end there. The warrior Restac doesn’t see any possibility of peace with what she views as a race of apes and insists that they treat the human race as unwanted tenants.

Silurians 2010

While the Doctor tries his best to talk sense to the Silurians, Amy and Mo escape and have a pleasant romp around the underground city. Meanwhile Mo’s wife manages to kill Alaya and ruins all chances of a peaceful solution to any of this. Everything goes pear-shaped and in the hustle and bustle, a compromise is made to try again in a thousand years. During some of the goofiest chase scenes ever, the Doctor simply points his magic wand at the Silurian ray guns and they explode. Without weapons, the alien warrior race is apparently lost for ideas and harmless. It’s absolutely absurd.

Two characters I could care less about find love and decide to live out their lives underground with weird retile people. Three other people are charged with passing on this message to the rest of the planet and the Silurians are put back to sleep. Somewhere along the way, Restac tries to kill the Doctor by Rory takes the bullet for him.

We are gathered here today to get through this thing called life...

Even though I had read that Rory died long before I saw the episode (thank you, internet), I was quite shocked by this. There were a few key moments leading to this scent that saw the Doctor determined to prevent anyone from being harmed yet failing to do so that I thought worked well. It was a well constructed moment. I really like Rory and his death will have a major impact on the program and on the Doctor’s persona (think Doctor No. 5 and Adric). Enveloped by the series-long thread of the Crack in Time that has followed the time travelers throughout this series, Rory is written out of history forever. Despite the Doctor’s attempts to force Amy to remember him, her memory of the man she was once destined to marry are gone.

As the pair stand by the TARDIS, Amy sees her future self on a distant hillside waving back, this time without Rory. It’s chilling to the viewer and to the Doctor who realize the enormity of the threat he is facing. What makes things even more dire is that he managed to pull an artifact out of the crack before retreating to the safety of the TARDIS. Holding it up to the light, it is obviously a portion of the Police Box shell of his space/time craft, broken off and flung through time.

What event could have caused so much damage? It’s a very intriguing plot device and has kept me guessing from week to week thus far.

For an adventure that saw the death of a main cast member and the return of a classic villain, this was a very disappointing story. Featuring dialog as painful as ‘we are not monsters’ and ‘I’ve finally found what I was digging for,’ this had to be one of the worst stories since the RTD/Tennant era. Smith’s performance and the hard work of the graphic designers, make up and set designers kept things interesting but it is still a major mis-step in a year of great stories. In inexplicably, it ranked very high in BBC viewing figures, perhaps because it centered around a proper monster. I just wish this one had more to offer.

Next time: Vincent and the Doctor

Doctor Who and the Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone

Doctor Who and the Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone
Series 05
Story 04 and 05
24 April, 1 May 2010

“There’s one thing you never want to put in a trap if you’re smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans of seeing tomorrow then there’s one thing that you should never, put in a trap. Me.”

An old friend, an old enemy and more ‘time-wimey’ logic… it’s Steven Moffat at his best. In fact, the Weeping Angels two-parter feels more like a showcase for Moffat than anything else. There are many friends of mine who dropped out of Doctor Who after the second or third series and are giving it a second try now that there is a new Doctor and a new production team in charge. That being the case, they have no point of reference for the Weeping Angels or for River Song. Both are brand new characters to them so the fact that Amy has no point of reference for them as well was as major plus as it forces the program to explain both as new ideas.

In the previous new series two-parters, the first half of the story has been great while the conclusion has been a massive let down. The Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone is an exception, the first two-parter that has been satisfying since the 2005 series’ Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. Time of the Angels is evenly paced, has an interesting part one cliffhanger/part two resolution and also features a terrific conclusion. Even so, there are problems.

Time of the Angels opens with a mixture of ideas. A man is seen hallucinating due to the effects of drugged lipstick while the Doctor and Amy Pond are visiting a museum in the distant future. I is a clever idea to present the Doctor in a museum, angrily declaring that the archeologists and historians had gotten it all wrong, but the joke is clumsily told, something more fitting to the Graham Williams era, perhaps. Just imagine Tom Baker as the Doctor laughing to himself by each display and you can see what I mean. As the Doctor discovers a ‘homebox’ from a starliner etched with ancient High Gallifreyan, we also see the precocious River Song burning the words into the same device thousands of years in the past. This leads to the Doctor dashing off to the TARDIS in order to catch River as she hurls herself out of an airlock in order to evade her pursuers. The whole scene is told in a fashion similar to a classic Bond opening, but it’s also muddled and somewhat clumsy. Unfortunately, these flaws flow through the entire two-parter which is actually a brilliantly inspired adventure crammed into two parts and hardly thought-out as well as it should have been.

To start with, River Song is hardly the same character as we had last seen and appears to be more like a Mike Meyers character than the slick and smart persona we had last met in Silence in the Library. This is revealed to be down to the fact that the River we are meeting is from a different time and has not matured yet. This isn’t really the best way to introduce an already convoluted character especially because of what comes next with the manipulation of the time stream, etc. The Doctor is at once put off by River which is odd but given that I was annoyed by her as well I didn’t exactly question his motives.

Also, while the plot is interesting, the dialog is still very dire. Why The incessant back and forth glances of realization between the Doctor and River Song (‘Of COURSE!’) are very very annoying. I suppose it is meant to cement the idea that she knows him better than he knows himself but the only trouble is that I find her so unappealing that I cannot imagine the Doctor marrying her so the idea falls flat. The latest in a long line of female Han Solo iterations, River Song has gone from a terribly interesting character to an obnoxious reject from a Carry On film. She’s actually similar in many way to Liz X, only she’s meant to be the Doctor’s wife.

Soon the Doctor is dragged into River’s scheme involving a platoon of camouflage-clad religious types searching the wreckage for a Weeping Angel. Why the soldiers are also members of a Church (which Church??) we are never told which is very sloppy. It’s hardly interesting unless we are given a reason to care. Given the logic of the script, it would have been just as legitimate to make the warrior accountants or plumbers. In any case, the moment that we are introduced to the second callback, the Weeping Angel, things get very interesting indeed.

River proudly shows the Doctor security footage of the Weeping Angel via a video recording. Leaving Amy behind, the Doctor and River try and uncover more of the mystery using arcane clues that soon make it very clear that Amy is in fact in mortal danger from a video image. While the modern monsters are shoddy imitations of the classic series’ monsters, at least Moffat is looking for innovative ways to use them. The Weeping Angels are able to transport their prey through time and remain immortal through the use of a ‘quantum lock.’ Their power, however, is also their curse and they cannot move while anyone is looking directly at them. A kind of carrion monster that feeds off of time, the Weeping Angels are essentially a gimmick monster, but a very good one. Moffat uses the new two-parter two show off some new ways in which the Weeping Angels can use their connection to time and even knit them to the year-long thread running through series five involving the crack in time and space.

The Doctor and the soldier-priests hunt for the Weeping Angel in a sea of similar statues to the sound of whooshing flashlights. The problem here is two-fold. All of the supporting characters are very weak and uninteresting and the incessant ‘whooshing’ sound of the flash lights gets old almost immediately. It seem as if someone watched a movie where it happened once and thought it would be even more riveting if it happened all the time, as if that is the sound light makes when it is nervous.

Also… who are these guys and why should I care about them?? They are as inconsequential as the soldiers in Earthshock back in 1982. Anyway, it’s still directed very well and the meat of the story has nothing to do with the soldier guys at all.

Traditionally, the concluding portion of a two-parter is a massive run-around, but this time it is instead full of drama and suspense as crisis-es mount on top of each other and the Doctor is starting to look like he is in over his head. The Weeping Angels, as it turns out, have lured the Doctor into a very intricate trap, as revenge for the Doctor tricking them on their last encounter. River Song, the soldier-priests and Amy are all doomed just buy association. The ‘angel in Amy’s eye’ idea is absolutely brilliant. After looking into the eyes of a Weeping Angel, Amy has become infected by one, represented by a miniature Angel image in her eye. The only solution is if Amy closes her eyes completely, but then she cannot see what is happening around her… and it is all bad. The very same crack that appeared in Amy’s room in The Eleventh Hour is also on board the starliner Byzantium and the Weeping Angels are suddenly in as much danger as everyone else from this complex anomaly.

This starts to connect a number of weird dots that could spell out a massive change at the end of the series. The crack in time is rewriting history, we are told. The Doctor first encountered the crack in Amy Pond’s bedroom in The Eleventh Hour and it has been following the pair of travelers ever since. Amy has no idea what a Dalek is and even the Doctor muses that it is odd that no one remembered the Cyber King attack from the Next Doctor adventure. Could all of this be pointing toward a massive reboot for Doctor Who? Given that the series is adhering to the 12 lives rule and Matt Smith is portraying Doctor No. 11, it is not that far outside of the realm of possibility and necessity as a way to keep the program going.

an angel lurks in Amy's eye

In any case the resolution is similarly inspired. After five years of running and screaming until the press of a magic big button solved everything, it’s fascinating to see the Doctor use his mind. While Doctor No. 10 ran almost exclusively on bravery, Doctor No. 11 is instead a brilliant tactician (often one that fails to understand his own train of thought). Using the Weeping Angels themselves to close the crack, the Doctor says goodbye (and good riddance) to River Song though they do share an odd exchange of lines about something called The Pandorica which the Doctor insists is a ‘fairy tale’ to which River Song giddily chirps ‘Aren’t we all?’ thus perpetuating the program’s fascination with presenting Doctor Who as a fairy tale.

As I noted when RTD started in one series two of Doctor Who, the program is still very deeply flawed but if the creative team writes toward that end by supporting its flaws with consistency, it can actually work. In RTD’s case it was poor writing and half-thought-out mad ideas supported by a miraculous form of medical science ‘that appeared to be magic’ in New Earth. In Moffat’s case it involves presenting the program as being so wildly fantastic that it can easily be appreciated as a modern fairy tale.

Next time:
Vampires of Venice